Nov 10, 2022

Dear colleagues,

Please see the message below from UC Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael T. Brown.

We have created a webpage to provide information and regular updates about the planned labor action, including this update from Provost Brown. Please check www.provost.uci.edu/continuity for updates. As a reminder, questions can be directed to the Continuity Support Committee at continuity@uci.edu.

Sincerely,

Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor’s Professor, Department of Statistics

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This letter is sent on behalf of Provost and Executive Vice President Michael T. Brown. For your convenience, the text of the letter is below.  The signed letter is linked here as a pdf.

November 9, 2022

ACADEMIC COUNCIL CHAIR SUSAN COCHRAN
EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLORS/PROVOSTS

Dear Colleagues:

As you know, the University is in contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) regarding four academic appointee bargaining units: Postdoctoral Scholars, Academic Researchers, Academic Student Employees (teaching assistants/readers/tutors), and Graduate Student Researchers. As explained below, all except the Academic Student Employees are typically paid on external grant funding.

Given the valued relations these employees have with faculty and the critical roles they play in our instructional and research missions, I judged it to be important that faculty understand what we are offering the UAW.

Outlined below are the University’s current offers for each UAW bargaining unit, as well as the University’s responses to union priorities. I ask that you please promptly share this letter with all faculty.

Highlights of UC’s proposals for each bargaining unit

Postdoctoral Scholars – Full-time employees who primarily work from external grant funds.

  1. UC is proposing a new UC salary scale for postdocs which offers an average minimum 7.5% increase above the current scale.
  2. UC’s proposed pay increases include annual range adjustments of 3% and experience-based step movement annually, resulting in approximately a 6.8% pay increase for every postdoc on scale in each year of the contract.
  3. UC is proposing a new child care reimbursement program for eligible postdocs which would provide up to $2,500 for child care costs annually for qualified dependents.
  4. UC has offered a parental benefit of four weeks of paid family medical leave for postdocs who are in their first year, and eight weeks of paid family medical leave for Family Medical Leave-eligible employees for family care and bonding, with a maximum combination of eight weeks of pay for family care and bonding per year.
  5. UC postdocs can choose to participate in the Postdoctoral Scholar Benefit Plans which include medical, dental, vision, life, AD&D, short-term disability, and voluntary long-term disability.
  6. Postdocs shall also continue to be eligible to participate in UC’s retirement plan(s) consistent with prior participation terms.

Academic Student Employees (teaching assistants/readers/tutors) – Employees who work 20 hours or less a week while earning their graduate or doctoral degree. 

  1. UC has offered a salary scale increase of 7% for all salaried ASEs in year one of the contract followed by a 3% increase in each subsequent year.
  2. UC’s offer includes an hourly wage increase of $1.50 per hour for all hourly ASEs (approximately 5-8% increases) in year one of the contract, and a $1.00 hourly rate increase (approximately 3-5% increase) in each subsequent contract year.
  3. UC is offering to increase the child care reimbursement by $750 per academic year, from $3,300 to $4,050, with an additional increase for eligible ASEs working during a summer session (from $1,100 to $1,350 for the summer).
  4. UC’s offer includes increasing paid pregnancy leave from six to eight weeks and paid personal medical leave/baby bonding/care for family members from four to five weeks.
  5. UC has proposed to cover 100% of campus fees for qualified ASEs, up from $100 per quarter and $150 per semester. This represents an increase of over $1,000 per year on certain campuses, in addition to the 100% coverage of tuition, student services fees, and health care already provided to qualified ASEs. This amounts to UC covering a total of $13,707 up to $22,248 for all tuition and fees for eligible ASEs, depending on the amount of tuition and fees assessed by the campus.
  6. UC offers eligible ASEs participation in UC-sponsored student health insurance plans to the same degree as other eligible students. UC-sponsored student health insurance plans include the multicampus UC Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP).
  7. ASEs shall also continue to be eligible to participate in UC’s retirement plan(s) consistent with prior participation terms.

Graduate Student Researchers – Graduate student employees who work 20 hours a week or less while earning their graduate or doctoral degree. These graduate student employees are paid primarily from external grant funds. 

  1. UC has proposed dropping the bottom two salary points of the salary scale, which results in 17-26% increases for GSRs currently on the two bottom salary points.
  2. The UC proposal also increases the current minimum GSR salary scale by 6%and the increments between salary points to 7%. The majority of the bargaining unit would see 9-10% increases in year one of the contract, with a 3% increase in each subsequent year.
  3. UC’s offer increases the child care reimbursement by $750 per academic year, from $3,300 to $4,050, with an additional increase in child care reimbursement for eligible GSRs working during the summer (from $1,100 to $1,350 for the summer).
  4. UC’s offer includes eight weeks for paid pregnancy leave and five weeks for paid personal medical leave/baby bonding/care for family members.
  5. UC’s proposal covers 100% of campus fees for qualified GSRs. This represents an increase of more than $1,000 per year on certain campuses. This is in addition to a previous UC proposal that covers 100% of tuition, student services fees, and health care coverage for qualified GSRs. This amounts to UC covering a total of $13,707 up to $22,248 for all tuition and fees for eligible GSRs, depending on the amount of tuition and fees assessed by the campus.
  6. Eligible GSRs may participate in UC-sponsored student health insurance plans including the multicampus UC Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP), and UC also has proposed that eligible GSRs be able to participate in UC’s retirement plan(s) similar to ASEs’ participation.

Academic Researchers – Full-time employees who primarily work from external grant funds.

  1. In year one of the contract, UC has proposed a 4% increase, with annual 3%increases in each subsequent contract year, resulting in a total increase of 16% over the life of the contract. The general range adjustments are in addition to the regular merit program for which Academic Researchers are eligible.
  2. Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PFCB): UC is offering eight weeks of 100% paid leave time for Family Medical Leave-eligible employees for parental bonding, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, for military caregiver leave, or qualifying exigency leave.
  3. UC is offering eligible Academic Researchers access to the retirement, medical, dental, housing programs, and other benefit programs generally available to other non-represented non-faculty academic employees.

UC’s responses to priority union issues

Fair pay: UC is committed to providing fair compensation to all academic employees. Due to the different roles of each of the UAW-represented groups, compensation for each bargaining unit necessarily varies. Salary proposals for graduate student employees are based on part-time employment. The full-time equivalent salary proposal for graduate student employees can generally be determined by taking the salary proposal and multiplying it by two.

Respectful work environment: UC has listened closely to the UAW and bargaining unit members’ concerns about workplace environment issues and has reached a tentative agreement with the union on the issue.

Housing: The UAW is asking that UC increase wages such that no bargaining unit member pays more than 30% of their salary toward their housing costs, with wage increases tied to housing costs. Affordable housing remains an issue for individuals and families throughout California, including for many UC students, faculty, and staff. On average, through University policy and action, UC student housing rents systemwide are 20-25% below market rates, with some campuses providing even deeper discounts. UC has offered wage increases for all UAW members which would further help them meet their housing needs.

Transportation subsidies: The UAW is asking that UC cover 100% of the cost of regional public transit passes for all bargaining unit members; provide cash incentives to take public transit or bike to work; and subsidize the purchase of bicycles, including e-bikes. At UC campuses, not only are UAW members who are students able to participate in transit and parking-related services on the same basis as other employees, eight of UC’s 10 campuses offer some form of student transit subsidy. In addition, UC has offered to pay 100% of campus fees for eligible appointments which, if accepted by the UAW, means all existing student-funded transit discounts would be fully funded by UC.

Bridge funding: The UAW is asking that UC supply up to $200,000 in bridge funding for up to two years for Academic Researchers who are Principal Investigators and who have lost extramural support. However, most academic appointees who are Principal Investigators do not have such funding available to them now.

International student fees: The UAW is requesting that international students in bargaining units be exempt from paying non-resident supplemental tuition, which is a financial benefit not afforded to other students and would result in greater total compensation for international student employees than other student employees.

The above information, as well as the University’s position on the UAW’s announced strike, is available at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/UAW. Faculty members are encouraged to visit the website as updates will be posted in in the coming days.

I hope you find this information helpful. We value our academic appointees and are committed to continuing to negotiate in good faith and achieving fair contracts that support our university community.

I will continue to update you on further developments. Meanwhile, if you have any questions, please contact your local Academic Personnel or Labor Relations office.

Sincerely,

Michael T. Brown, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

cc: President Drake
Chancellors
Academic Council Vice Chair Steintrager
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Nava
Vice President Lloyd
Vice Provost Haynes
Associate Vice President Matella
Associate Vice Provost Lee
Executive Director Lin
Executive Director Silas
Deputy General Counsel Woodall